The fuel imported by Venezuela in its maximum value since the sanctions of the United States

Venezuela imports fuel at a rate not seen since the United States imposed sanctions on the country and He cut off his main foreign gasoline stock.

Fuel imports, essential for the president Nicolás Maduro maintain power in Venezuela, doubled in July compared to the previous month, according to shipping reports and ship tracking data collected by Bloomberg. Maintaining this heavily subsidized supply of gas is essential to allay the country's discontent, which is already suffering from inflation, food shortages and a widespread humanitarian crisis.

"Hospitalizations related to gasoline are particularly important since state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA, is expected to operate only at 15% of its capacity until the end of the year." 2020, "according to the newspaper. Nicolas Daher, London-based badyst at Facts Global Energy. "As a result, fuel imports are and will continue to be vital to meet domestic demand and avoid any increase in social unrest."

The last time a Venezuelan leader attempted to phase out fuel subsidies, a wave of riots broke out across the country, killing at least 3,000 people. Despite the rise in sanctions imposed by the United States, the Venezuelan government has so far kept prices of gasoline at bay. Venezuelans can fill a tank with less than US $ 1.

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In July, imports rose to 196,000 barrels a day, with Greece being the main supplier. About 33% of this volume was loaded at Agioi Theodoroi, the port where the refineries of Motor Oil (Hellas) Corinth Refineries, the largest Greek exporter of petroleum products, operate. The Athens-based company has entered into an agreement to supply petroleum products to a Rosneft subsidiary, Petrocas Energy, until 2022. Rosneft is a long-time partner of PDVSA. He loaned 6.5 billion US dollars to be returned in the form of oil.

The Rosneft press office did not respond to messages from Bloomberg Looking for comments.

Venezuela imported all of its gasoline from US refineries, but this flow stopped after the announcement of sanctions. Since then, PDVSA imports mainly from Greece and Russia, but also from Turkey, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates. The South American nation imports gasoline, diesel and methyl tert-butyl ether, an additive that increases the octane number of gasoline. It also imported vacuum diesel cargoes, a raw material used by refineries to produce gasoline.

According to PDVSA workers, there is only one month of fuel left in Venezuela

Most of the gasoline is supplied after agreeing to barter, companies like Rosneft shipping gasoline and diesel in exchange for crude oil. Rosneft received 58% of the country's shipments of crude oil in July and was also responsible for most of the fuel supplied to the country, according to data collected by Bloomberg. PDVSA also received diesel shipments sent by Repsol in July.

"Due to the sanctions imposed by the United States, barter deals will remain essential for Venezuelan fuel imports and crude oil exports.Daher explained.